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Over-Extended Metaphor for the day (antipope.org)
40 points by cstross on Dec 26, 2013 | hide | past | favorite | 19 comments



"...on explaining Religion to Techies" deserves a creation myth. Please help me to get this correct:

Day 1: Edison invents electricity

Day 2: Atari invented Pong

Day 3: Intel invented the CPU

Day 4: IBM invented the PC

Day 5: Bill Gates gave birth to Windows

Day 6: Al Gore invented the internet


And on the seventh day, REST


Can someone please tell me how Atari created Pong before Intel invented the CPU?

I think I've found a plot hole! And we all know there were none of those in the original 7 day creation story.


The did the whole game in hardware. You are thinking of a computer in the modern sense, memory, processor, software. It wasn't always thus.


I see - I didn't realize Pong was implemented entirely in hardware.

Chronologically, at least, Intel's first commercial processor was in 1970 but Pong was released in 1972.


Worryingly accurate metaphor: Unix is Christianity, complete with Linus as Luther.


I love the Laundry books, but this is the sort of drivel I expect from ESR.


Truth is that Unix has a very good design for an operating system, that gained large popularity, and will be in widespread use throughout the foreseeable future, because of the superiority of its machine model and design.

No matter how many blog posts there will be to try to diminish it into an operating system for some religious cult, and weirdos. It is still the best platform. I hope that many more users will benefit from it in the future, as the philosphy behind it is so much more user friendly, and practical than most other Operating Systems. Read me right, I am talking about having Unix in the core of the OS here, not just to present a user with a shell.


How does Debian not make the story, but dpkg and Ubuntu do?


What if the audience to whom you're explaining is non-techie and areligious?


Then it doesn't matter since they will clearly burn in non-techie hell.


Areligious doesn't mean ignorant of history.


True; just as "religious" does not guarantee knowledge of it.


Reminds me of that one Family Guy episode...

Brian: Stewie, you're judgmentally quoting bible verses and you don't even know how to read! Stewie: Welcome to America, Brian.


I would have cast Jobs/NeXT as Constantine, bringing unix to the desktops of the common user.


so presumably we due for a schism in the apple faithful with IOS 9 being iconoclasts - trashing apple stores and defacing icons of the late steve jobs.


for fsck's sake. Unix fans always forget that there were other host systems with lineages that are longer...some of which are still in use.

Unix people love to go on and on about Unix...that's the take away message.

Also, what would Hindu be in this worldview? It's older, and more people "use" it and its decedents than Unix.


yes thinking abotu it a bit more the unix schisms remind me of the emo philips sketch about religion..

Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump. I said, "Don't do it!" He said, "Nobody loves me." I said, "God loves you. Do you believe in God?"

He said, "Yes." I said, "Are you a Christian or a Jew?" He said, "A Christian." I said, "Me, too! Protestant or Catholic?" He said, "Protestant." I said, "Me, too! What franchise?" He said, "Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?" He said, "Northern Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?"

He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist." I said, "Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Baptist Eastern Region?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region." I said, "Me, too!"

Northern Conservative†Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?" He said, "Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912." I said, "Die, heretic!" And I pushed him over.





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